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Class 
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OBSERVATIONS 



THE ADVANTAGES OF 



GENERAL EDUCATION 



AMONGST THE 



YOUTH OF THE HIGHER RANKS 



ADDRESSED TO 



PARENTS, PRECEPTORS, AND PUPILS, 



F. B; RIBBANS, F. S. A., 

HEAD MASTER OF SIR THOMAS POWELl'S ENDOWED GRAMMAR SCHOOL, 
CARMARTHEN. 



" TEMPUS VITjE MONITOR." 



LONDON : 
WHITTAKER & CO., AVE MARIA LANE. 



MDCCCXLVI. 






/StS3/6 

9** fJ 



W. SPURREAL, PRINTER, KING-STREET, CARMARTHEN. 



■$ 






TO 

THE VENERABLE ARCHDEACON BEVAN 

VICAR OF CARMARTHEN, 

AS AN 

INTIMATION OF RESPECT, ESTEEM, AND REGARD, 

TO 

THE WORTHY PASTOR, THE PIOUS DIVINE, 

AND 

THE UNCOMPROMISING ADVOCATE OF THE PRINCIPLES 

OF 

THE ESTABLISHED CHURGH, 

THIS EDITION 

OF 

THE FOLLOWING OBSERVATIONS ON GENERAL EDUCATION 

IS, 

WITH FRIENDLY PERMISSION, 

INSCRIBED, 

BY HIS 

FAITHFUL AND DEVOTED PARISHIONER, 

THE AUTHOR. 



i 



PREFACE 



The Observations here offered to the 
public are written by one, the greatest 
portion of whose life has been devoted to 
the instruction of youth. The name in 
the Dedication is a sufficient guarantee 
that they contain no objectionable senti- 
ments, and advocate no injurious or ques- 
tionable principles. 

A long preface is seldom acceptable, and 
quite unsuitable to a Pamphlet; and it 
would be unbecoming in an author to say 
more in praise of his own production than 



VI PREFACE. 

that he hopes it will be found on perusal 
to possess, besides the negative merit of 
being harmless, the positive one of being 
useful and interesting to those for whom it 
is intended, and to whom it is addressed. 



OBSERVATIONS, 

&c, &c. 



^^g^HEN it is considered that youth, 
i^yi^ which is the most suitable sea- 
^llpll son for the exercise of mental 
activity and the acquisition of useful know- 
ledge, is sometimes averse from exertion, 
and by slight obstacles easily diverted from 
study ; it is hoped that the senior members 
of society will admit the propriety of sti- 
mulating the latent energies, and inviting 
to action the intellectual vigour, of the 
youthful student ; and that young persons, 
whose attention may happen to be attracted 
by the following observations, and for 
whose improvement they are specially in- 
tended, will peruse them carefully and 
receive them kindly, as they have been 
written for their use, and are offered for 
their acceptance by a sincere friend, 



Idleness and indolence are sometimes 
found amongst men, who have, to rouse 
them to exertion, all the motives that can 
affect the heart or convince the head of a 
human being. The necessity which exists 
for their endeavouring to extricate them- 
selves from the personal privation and 
mental misery which never fail to accom- 
pany and to punish sloth and misconduct, 
is the lowest and least honourable, because 
it is purely selfish ; and on this account I 
mention it first that I may the sooner get 
rid of it. But there are some men who 
suffer their faculties to sleep while their 
families are in want ; and others who doze 
away their days in listless torpidity, or 
waste their bodies and weaken their minds 
by intemperate excess and stupifying riot ; 
while their conscience, their kindred, and 
their country, demand as a right the care- 
ful cultivation and constant employment of 
those abilities, which have been bestowed 



by the gracious Creator to be employed for 
the honour of their possessor and the 
benefit of mankind. 

And when we meet with men — men 
grown up and gifted too — thus culpable, 
shall we reprove with harshness the indo- 
lent spirit of youth, or stigmatize with 
severity their reluctance to labour ? 

No— 

But I will advise them as a friend and 
exhort them as a father ; — I will point out 
to them the impropriety of idleness, and 
the wretchedness in which it infallibly 
ends — I will warn them of the perils by 
which it is encompassed, and the precipice 
to which it conducts — I will uncover and 
disclose to, them the ruinous artifices of 
the seducing Syren ; and calling to them 
in the gentle accents of genuine regard, 
and extending to them the friendly hand 
of indulgent tenderness, I will draw them 
away from the deceitful and the dangerous 



den of sloth, and will guide and guard 
them up the safe and salutary ascent of 
industrious integrity to the temple of hap- 
piness, which stands upon its summit. 

Young people are sometimes unwilling 
to study, because they think all time 
lost that is not spent in amusement and 
devoted to play ; but these, if they can 
only be prevailed upon to try the experi- 
ment, will soon ascertain that previous 
study heightens the pleasure of play to 
an extent of which they only can form a 
conception who have felt and enjoyed it ; 
and the reason of this is, that our mind 
and body are so constituted that the 
former is relieved by variety and the latter 
requires occasional rest; but when the 
life of any one presents only one endless 
and unaltered scene of play, the body is 
fatigued, and the mind ceases to be 
amused by pastime so often repeated as 
to have become tedious and insipid. 



5 

There is however another reason, of 
even greater importance, for the dulness 
and dissatisfaction of play, when not di- 
versified and broken by intervals of study : 
" The still, small voice of conscience ' : 
speaks her soft and solemn censure to the 
heart of the youthful idler, even when he 
perceives not her presence nor understands 
her reproof. 

Man is the only animal that is capable 
of progressive and constant improvement. 
All other animals derive from the Deity a 
certain portion of instinct and limited mea- 
sure of intelligence, sufficient to secure 
their preservation, and to supply them 
with such comforts as are suited to their 
condition ; but beyond this they are unable, 
and have never been known, to advance. 
A bird's nest is admirably contrived and 
curiously constructed, and so is a beaver's 
hut ; but neither the birds nor the beavers 
have ever made any improvement or even 



6 

any change in the form and fitness of their 
dwellings from their creation until now. 
It is not so with man. Wide is the dif- 
ference between the rude hut of the savage 
and the commodious house of the enlight- 
ened citizen ; and still wider grows the 
difference when we compare the former 
with the stately and the splendid palaces 
of nobles and of kings. In this and in a 
thousand other instances still more striking 
and sublime, does man display his capacity 
for improvement, and incontestably prove 
that his busy and boundless mind was made 
to exercise and expand itself; to dive 
deeply — to soar loftily — to stretch her 
unwearied wings to every point of the 
compass, and every part of the spacious 
universe — and to return from all laden 
with stores of useful knowledge, and 
enriched by the acquisition of exhaustless 
subjects for pious contemplation. 

From this it is evident that man was 



designed by his Maker to lead a life — not 
of indolence but of activity ; and, from the 
first dawn of reflection, to the day of his 
death, to labour for the improvement of 
himself and the benefit of his fellow-men. 
To neglect this, and to waste time either 
in doing nothing, or in doing what is 
wrong, must rouse the clamours of con- 
science in the breast of any one, but most 
loudly and painfully in the susceptible sea- 
son of youth ; and this is a very important 
reason for the dulness and dissatisfaction 
of play, when not diversified and broken 
by intervals of study. 

Some young people indulge in idleness 
or give way to indolence, because they do 
not think sufficiently, or do not think at all, 
of the great value of time, and the utter 
impossibility of recalling, or recovering, 
even the most imperceptible atom of it, 
that has once flitted by and been lost in its 
progress. 



8 

Were it not for this juvenile heedless- 
ness, let us charitably hope, that young 
people, who, being as yet unwarped by 
the wiles and the wickedness of the world, 
are generally amiable and well-disposed, 
would display a deeper sense of the moral 
obligation that urges them to economize 
and treasure up their time, because 

" It is the stuff that life is made of ; " 

and let us cheer ourselves with the pleasing 
conviction, that when its importance is thus 
affectionately set before them, they will 
henceforth be influenced and acted upon 
by the religious duty that demands the 
improvement of their talents, and which 
will rigidly exact an account of the use 
and the abuse of both our talents and our 
time, when we shall have entered upon 
that eternity by which time itself will one 
day be swallowed up and succeeded. 

Some young people, on the other hand, 
do indeed think of time, but then they 



9 

form an erroneous opinion respecting it, 
and are thus inveigled into a practical 
mistake. They conclude that, because few 
years have as yet rolled over their heads, 
they have time enough before them for the 
accomplishment of any object. 

Indeed, my young friends, you are de- 
ceived. The stoutest and the strongest 
amongst us knows not the moment when 
he may be snatched away by the relentless 
and resistless grasp of death. Besides, 
when we take a prospective view of time, 
our mental vision becomes the dupe of an 
optical delusion, We may fancy, as we 
hole forward, that a certain point of time 
is a great way from us ; but ere we have 
opportunity to calculate the distance, that 
which a moment sooner seemed so remote, 
is come and gone. It is when we cast a 
retrospective glance at the days which have 
disappeared for ever, that we see clearly 
and understand thoroughly what a short 



10 

span is the life of man when measured 
with time! — what a speck is time itself 
when compared with eternity ! 

Let youth, therefore, listen to the expe- 
rience of age, and learn and be persuaded 
not to waste the smallest particle of so 
precious a treasure as time, lest they 
should bitterly lament the want of it, when 
no toil can retrieve and no wealth can 
purchase it. 

" Ah youth, ye little think how short the space 
While pleasure leads you in her sportive train ? 
With her th' uncertain path of life you trace, 
A few frail comforts, hut an age of pain. 
O hasten then, from her alluring charms, 
Let your free minds to virtue soar on high ; 
So shall your souls be free from all alarms, 
Rise from the earth, and gain the exalted sky ! " 

Rebecca Ribbans. 

My young friends will perceive, from the 
foregoing observations, that to devote a 
due proportion of time to study, is not 
only their duty and their interest, but will 
also conduce to their enjoyment ; and 



11 

therefore to examine with them which of 
their studies merits the chief place in their 
attention and regard, will, I hope, be use- 
ful, and, I think, not uninteresting to 
them. 

The first and highest place belongs, of 
course, from its intrinsic excellence and 
vast importance, to the valuable truths 
contained in the Book of the Christian 
Religion, which has respect not only to 
this life, but also to that which is to come, 
and which will render those that embrace 
and maintain it in practical sincerity, not 
only comfortable and contented while they 
live upon the earth, but blessed and happy 
for ever in heaven, when the earth itself 
shall have dissolved and disappeared. 
Let every parent and teacher make the 
knowledge of the Bible the basis and 
cupola of all education but by no means to 
adopt it as a task book, by giving it to a 
child to read as a punishment instead of a 



12 

privilege. The rendering holy things too 



common is detrimental to the veneration 
that ought to accompany them. It is not 
I am aware, a common sight, but it is 
nevertheless a delightful one to see a child 
turn to his Bible for rules of faith and 
knowledge. 

The studies to which, in the next place, 
a youth should pay the closest attention 
are those which bear most directly upon 
the profession that he is intended to pur- 
sue, or the station that he is destined to 
fill in society, bu^jJboy_oLt he lowest j^ank 
in society ought to have a supe rior edu ca^ 
tion, if his genius be extraordinary. 



For what are commonly called the 
learned professions, the learned languages 
are undoubtedly the most material objects 
of acquisition ; but it is, at the same time, 
desirable, if not indispensable, to add to 
them a sufficient stock of general informa- 
tion and gentleman-like accomplishment. 



13 

Those who propose to make themselves 
useful to society in the engineering, archi- 
tectural, and some other departments, will 
find the study of Mathematics, Survey- 
ing and Mapping, Perspective, and 
Geometrical Drawing, best calculated 
to forward their views and advance their 
interest. 

Trade and Commerce require a facility 
of calculation and a knowledge of Mo- 
dern Languages, Book-keeping, and 
Accounts. The study of the Classics as 
often pursued, is hardly worth the labour 
and trouble taken — not that I would 
whisper a word against Greek and Latin ; 
but the dead languages should never be 
forced upon boys not destined for the Uni- 
versities ; and I think the natural sciences 
and living languages far more important to 
those intended for commercial life. Those 
preparing for Agricultural pursuits would 
do well to blend with their studies the 



14 

elements of Chemistry and Geology. 
The Army and Navy require a thorough 
acquaintance with Fortification, Me- 
chanics, Astronomy, and Geography. 

He who hopes to hold a distinguished 
station in the British Senate should endea- 
vour to make himself a good Classical 
Scholar and a profound Historian, — 
seeking with peculiar assiduity to acquire 
a clear conception and luminous view of 
the changes which his own country has 
undergone during the lapse of ages — the 
genius of her inhabitants — the form of her 
government — and the character of her con- 
stitution. The qualities requisite in a 
statesman are eloquence, inflexible con- 
stancy, and perseverance. 

The studies that are most appropriate to 
other pursuits, will either occur at once to 
an intelligent youth, or be readily ascer- 
tained, if he appeal to the discernment of 
a kind and conscientious tutor. 



15 

There was a time in this highly favoured 
country when the establishment of schools 
was amongst the first and last thoughts of 
those whom Providence had favoured with 
prosperity in their vocations. We see, in 
almost every hamlet vestiges of the Gram- 
mar School and spacious play-ground ; and 
we dwell with delight in recollection of the 
favoured ball-court or the rude carved desk 
of oaken plank. We visit these places 
with feelings of boyish joy, and would 
gladly see our own sons gambolling in the 
same grounds, or conning the same tasks on 
the same bench where we had passed our 
own childhood. And what emotions are 
harrowed up, if time in his course should 
have so desecrated the hallowed spot as to 
leave nothing but the name remaining ! 
How many well endowed schools have been 
suffered to dwindle away or to lose their 
reputation through carelessness or covet- 
ousness ! The wretched abuses in our old 



16 

Grammar Schools first suggested the revival 
of Pliny's proprietary method of securing 
an education suitable to the intellectual 
strides of the times ; and these Institutions 
have tended to give an impulse to edu- 
cation equal to any period in the history 
of the world — and we hail this state of 
things with thankfulness and hope — we 
would see the country studded with good 
schools for all classes, busy in intellectual 
research, free from the degrading and 
unnecessary system of beating, and daily 
gaining strength in religion and refinement, 
until the "land shall be filled with the 
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover 
the sea ! " 

No profession requires patience and 
unceasing vigilance more than that of a 
schoolmaster : with him education should 
be always going on, in the play-ground as 
in class and at meals — not in stiff repulsive 
rebuke, but by mild, rational remarks — and 



17 

if thete is one thing more pleasing than 
another in the work of tuition it is that of 
being called upon to decide questions 
which may arise during the hours of play- 
ful recreation — and he who makes a toil of 
this watchfulness, mistakes his profession. 
It is an indisputable fact, that no one 
can know too much; and all the know- 
ledge we can acquire — I mean, of course, 
of a good and profitable kind — can scarcely 
fail to turn to our advantage on some 
occasion or other; and perhaps when we 
least expect it, it may be found most 
available. But there are two branches of 
education, which, from their being so 
universally diffused, hold not so dignified a 
position in general esteem as some others 
which are more rarely acquired, and per- 
haps more abstruse, and yet they yield 
to none in pratical utility and extensive 
benefit; and these two are Letter-wri ting 
and Arithmetic, 



18 

Were it not for the invention, nay, more, 
were it not for the improvement, and, I 
had almost said the perfection of writing, 
man had been comparatively mute. Those 
who had the means of personal communi- 
cation might, through the medium of con- 
versation, have conveyed to one another 
the ideas that arose in their respective 
minds ; but all intercourse between per- 
sons at a distance, if not altogether im- 
possible, would, at least, have had to 
encounter formidable obstacles, and been 
attended on many occasions with serious 
inconvenience. 

Symbols, such as flowers, &c, may cer- 
tainly be used, and have been sometimes 
employed for the carrying on of a corre- 
spondence between absent persons ; but 
it must be more than difficult for those 
friends whose souls are energetic, and 
whose attachment is strong, to give utter- 
ance in this way to all the bursting enthu- 



19 

siasni and glowing regard that emanates 
from their hearts, and affection urges them 
to express. If, too, the signification of 
the symbols be not previously agreed 
upon, and clearly defined, they may pos- 
sibly excite in the mind of the person who 
receives them, ideas different from those 
intended to be called forth by the person 
who selected and sent them ; and thus 
error is engendered, and confusion ensues. 

Intercourse may be carried on, it is 
true, to a certain extent, between absent 
persons by means of a messenger. But 
where a messenger is employed, he may 
either accidentally misunderstand or wil- 
fully misrepresent the mission with which 
he has been charged ; and thus, by his 
mistake or machination, he may produce 
discord and disagreement between two 
parties who made use of his agency to 
cement and confirm a settled friendship. 

But writing is altogether free from these 



20 

objections ; for writing, if it reach its des- 
tination in safety, can tell no other tale 
than the one entrusted to it ; and if we 
express ourselves clearly and gramma- 
tically, can scarcely fail to be understood 
and appreciated by the person who pe- 
ruses it. And this leads me to notice 
another advantage that has been derived 
indirectly from the invention and the use 
of writing.* 

It has been more instrumental than per- 
haps anything else, to the production and 
preservation of accuracy of language and 
grammatical correctness. We may speak 
in a hurried, inelegant, or obscure style, 
and may either correct ourselves at the 
moment, or he who hears us may ask for 
an immediate explanation ; and thus, what 

* The Arabians have a tradition that Enoch was the first 
who, after Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, wrote, and many 
learned men have supposed that the alphabet was of Divine 
origin. Moses, Job, and Joshua wrote. 



21 

is careless may be rectified, what is offen- 
sive may be altered, and what is unintel- 
ligible may be elucidated, Besides, words 
spoken being invisible and evanescent, it is 
by no means easy for either speaker or 
hearer to retain, at all times, or for any 
long period, such a distinct recollection of 
a merely verbal assertion as shall constitute 
in the mind or the judgment of many, 
satisfactory evidence for the establishment 
of any particular point, either of censure 
or defence. A consciousness of this tends 
to make many persons indifferent about the 
manner in which they express themselves, 
when they have not to record their ex- 
pressions in writing. But the durability of 
a written document makes people cautious ; 
for as long as it is preserved in a legible 
condition, it can always be referred to ; and 
when called upon, never fails nor refuses 
to give an impartial and unimpeachable 
testimony ; and therefore people, before 



22 

they commit anything to paper, are com- 
pelled to weigh their words and scrutinize 
their style, lest they should be mis- 
understood ; and this improves language. 
And not only so, but they even feel it 
necessary to investigate their thoughts, and 
analyze their passions, lest they should, in 
a hasty moment, register against themselves 
a lasting monument of disgrace and ruin ; 
and thus, by means of writing, if morality 
be not entirely purified, at all events 
decency is greatly promoted. In a word, 
had it not been for the art of writing, the 
philosophical discoveries of the learned, the 
glowing effusions of the eloquent, and the 
devout aspirations of the pious, must have 
perished with the great and the good in 
whom they originated, and could never 
have been transmitted, as we trust they 
will long continue to be, for the delight 
and instruction of distant posterity. 

Having thus hastily established, and 



23 

briefly expatiated upon the abstract value 
of writing, I must say a few words relative 
to its practical execution, or what is 
usually termed Hayidivriting. 

The two main points to be accom- 
plished in this are, first, that it be^easik/^ 
read ; and, secondly, that it look well to 
the^eye^ 

The first will be effected by teaching 
the pupils to form each letter separately, 
before they attempt to join any two 
together ; making them write larger at 
the commencement, that they may learn 
soon and thoroughly the proper shape of 
each letter; and not acquire a habit of 
producing such senseless contortions as the 
writing of grown persons occasionally offers 
to the bewildered vision of their corre- 
spondents, Great care must next be taken 
that the pupils join the letters that com- 
pose a word in a distinct, and, if I may so 
say, in a legitimate manner ; and that they 



24 

avoid running one word into another, and 
huddling up letter upon letter, till the 
whole presents nothing to the eye and 
mind, but one incomprehensible and inex- 
tricable picture of chaos, and affords to 
the puzzled decipherer an apt, but pro- 
voking illustration of "confusion worse 
confounded." 

Writing will always look well, when the 
letters all incline regularly from right to 
left, and are as nearly as possible parallel 
one to the other. All that is required, in 
addition to render writing good-looking, is, 
that due and equal distances be observed, 
and that the proper and proportional 
heights and sizes of the letters be care- 
fully attended to and maintained. 

This is really, in my poor opinion, all 
that is required ; for, as to looking through 
a microscope, which I am told is some- 
times done, to detect the slightest, and 
otherwise inperceptible, deviation in a 



25 

down-stroke, or flaw in a hair-stroke ; this 
is being over nice, but by no means over 
wise. Such a trifling inaccuracy in the 
mechanical construction of writing, invi- 
sible to the naked eye, could never lead to 
any doubt or misconception of the writer's 
meaning, and is therefore unworthy of the 
time and trouble bestowed, first in finding 
it out, and then in correcting it. Another 
branch of the same system, which consists 
in the flourishing of birds, beasts, and 
fishes, men, scrolls, and pens, appears to 
me to be very useless, unless considered as 
a concomitant to the art of drawing, and 
pursued by some one who has a decided 
taste and predominant talent for it ; or 
who may find it expedient to acquire, for 
some special purpose, a facility in orna- 
mental writing ; otherwise, it is a waste 
of time, which might be employed and 
expended in some other way, much more 
profitable and quite as pleasant. 



26 

It is assuredly a most desirable object, 
provided a thing be done equally well, 
that it should be done quickly. The steel 
pen is now brought to the elasticity of the 
goose-quill pen, and I strongly recommend 
its universal adoption in schools.* By the 
use of it two evils will be avoided ; first, 
a pupil will not sit wasting his time, with 
his pen in his hand, waiting to have it 
mended; and, secondly, he will not, from 
being frequently interrupted in the middle 
of a word by one of those microscopic 
masters to whom I before alluded, acquire a 
stiff, repulsive style of writing, from which 

" N'o after effort ever can extricate him." 

* The best Steel Pens I have ever met with, are those 
made by Joseph Gillott, of the Victoria Works, Bir- 
mingham, whose extensive manufactory, adapted to steam 
power, affords regular employment to some hundreds of 
hands ; and it is probable that no Establishment of the kind 
exists of equal magnitude and completeness. Mr. Gillott 
enjoys a well-earned pre-eminent celebrity amongst Architects, 
Bankers, Merchants, and all Ranks and Professions, for the 
agreeable pliancy of his various pens. 



27 

I must now offer a few observations 
upon Arithmetic. 

Arithmetic is an art which teaches the 
properties and powers of numbers, and the 
method of calculating and computing by 
them. I call the arithmetic, which is the 
subject of present discussion, an art, as 
being practical and of particular appli- 
cation, in contradistinction to a science, 
which is theoretical and abstract. 

But before I express my opinion of the 
great and universal benefit of practical 
arithmetic, let us gratefully acknowledge 
our obligation to the science from which it 
is deduced ; or rather, to those intellectual 
benefactors who have reduced their scien- 
tific discoveries to a popular form, and 
have elicited from their deep deliberations 
and acute researches, a system of admir- 
able simplicity and extensive advantage. 
It ought not to be forgotten, that though 
in this commercial country, few are to be 



28 

found who do not understand, and who 
are not, in fact, able to instruct others in 
the common rules of arithmetic ; yet for 
those very rules we are indebted to the 
exercise of mathematical ingenuity ; and 
though many may be able to work a 
question, as it is called, comparatively few 
can unfold the reasoning by which the rule 
is obtained, or state the principles upon 
which it is founded. 

A knowledge of this art would be 
beneficial to all, and is indispensable to 
many, in a civilized and commercial country 
like Great Britain. This is so obvious a 
truth, that it may appear, at first sight, 
superfluous to assert its utility, or enlarge 
upon its advantages. As it is however a 
singular fact, that in some public schools, 
which are in other respects admirably con- 
ducted, this art is either neglected or 
altogether excluded ; to say a few words 
in its defence will not, it is hoped, be 



29 

deemed by all persons ill-timed and unne- 
cessary. 

To the tradesman, a knowledge of 
Arithmetic is clearly indispensable, and to 
the merchant no less so ; not only that they 
may be able to secure themselves from 
imposition, and to manage their affairs 
with facility and success, but also that 
they may possess the power (should there 
arise an occasion for its display) to prevent 
others with whom they transact business 
from injuring themselves by false cal- 
culations, and thus to escape an act of 
injustice ; for it is the part of a prudent 
man to see that he receives all his right, 
but that of an honest man, to take care that 
he receives no more ; and thus, to the 
merchant and the tradesman, a thorough 
knowledge of Arithmetic becomes not only 
an essential help to business, but also a 
moral obligation of no small importance. 

If a private gentleman of independent 



30 

fortune, however large, be quite ignorant 
of this art, he cannot be acquainted, as a 
man of sense and discretion ought to be, 
with the exact state of his affairs. He will 
not be able to discover for himself that his 
expenditure calls for retrenchment in some 
particular branch, and would perhaps in 
another part of it admit of the adoption 
and introduction of a more liberal system. 
He is altogether at the mercy of his 
managers and servants. He is completely 
fettered respecting the independent dis- 
posal of his own property. He is in the 
condition of one who, having lost the use 
of his limbs, is compelled to have recourse 
to the assistance of others to remove him 
from place to place ; or of a blind man, 
who can only receive a perception of the 
objects of sight from the description of 
others. His helpless ignorance, too, holds 
out a fatal lure for fraud and imposition. 
He may be in difficulties, without knowing 



31 

anything about it, and ruined before he is 
aware of it And thus his ignorance of 
Arithmetic not only renders him liable to 
be plunged into misery, and involved in 
want by the carelessness of others, which 
he cannot perceive, or their wickedness, 
which he cannot detect; but absolutely 
deprives him of those ample means for 
doing good, and dispensing blessings, which 
are supplied to an amazing extent by the 
clever and economical management of a 
small income, and flow in abundance from 
the judicious and prudent use of a large 
fortune. And from this it is evident, that 
a competent knowledge of Arithmetic is 
by no means a matter of indifference to 
the man of independent property. 

Though this argument might by induc- 
tion be protracted ad infinitum, I shall 
specify but one more case ; and that I em- 
ploy to prove not only the general utility, 
but also the intrinsic dignity of Arithmetic. 



32 

The financial prosperity of his country 
must be an object of interest to every real 
patriot. Nothing can be more deserving 
of the study and attention of him, who 
either inherits from his ancestors, or has 
been called upon by his country to occupy 
a senatorial seat, than her financial condi- 
tion. It is undoubtedly an object of vital 
import not only to our credit and charac- 
ter, but even to our very existence as a 
nation, that the wheels of the financial 
machine be kept clear and unclogged. 
But he who is entirely ignorant of arith- 
metic must be unable either to devise a 
plan for extricating them, should they 
unfortunately become involved, or for 
communicating perpetuity to their motion 
while they run freely. He will be unable 
to understand a single statement respect- 
ing them; he must receive wholesale 
whatever sweeping assurances may assail 
him of inevitable ruin, or unmixed pros- 



33 

perity ; he cannot, by entering into details, 
either detect error or refute fallacy. How 
inferior, therefore, is he, both in utility and 
in honour, to the man whose accuracy and 
whose acquirements empower him, when 
peril presses, to point out the means of 
safety, and, when the danger is past, 
proudly to direct the attention of his 
grateful country to the security and the 
happiness to which his sagacity has re- 
stored and in which his counsels have 
established her ! 

If there be any greater or more grati- 
fying distinction than this, then is country 
but a name, and patriotism only a shadow. 
But this is not the case here — nor will 
Englishmen, till they cease to be English- 
men, ever suffer it to be so. And, there- 
fore, having brought this part of my 
discussion to a point, at which I feel it to 
be impossible to add either to its interest 
or its strength, I shall close it with the 



34 

assertion with which it commenced, and 
which has, I think, been fully confirmed — 
that a knowledge of arithmetic would be 
beneficial to all, and is indispensable to 
many in a civilized and commercial country 
like our own. 

Nothing that is truly valuable is to 
be acquired without labour ; but to the 
generous mind and noble spirit, difficulty 
only acts as a stimulus to determined per- 
severance. Thus, in learning mathematics, 
we must become acquainted with certain 
definitions, postulates, and axioms, before 
we can proceed to solve a single proposition. 
The study of languages must be preceded 
by some familiarity with grammatical rules. 
And arithmetic, which is now under con- 
sideration, cannot be understood soundly 
and efficiently, without first committing to 
memory certain tables descriptive of the 
value of money, and of weights and mea- 
sures. It is certainly desirable that the 



35 

road to learning should be made as easy 
and attractive as possible ; but I really do 
not see how these tables can be dispensed 
with. The student must console himself / 
with the assurance that once carefully en- 
graved on the memory, they will never be ( 
thoroughly erased, unless disease should 
happen to destroy the mental tablet that / 
contains them ; and if they occasionally 
appear to fade and wax faint upon it, a 
very short and slight renewal of attention 
will cause them to shine forth again in all 
their original brightness. The tutor, too, 
whose duty it is, and whose delight it 
ought to be, and no doubt generally is, to 
aid the progress and encourage the exer- 
tion of his pupils, must, in this instance, 
place the tables before the young learner 
in the simplest form and in the most per- 
spicuous order, , that he may acquire them 
the more readily and retain them the more 
distinctly. 



36 

This will do much towards lightening 
the labour and aiding the advancement of 
the pupil ; but much more would be done, 
if all our coins, weights, and measures 
were reduced to one decimal standard ; and 
this really appears an improvement as easy 
to be executed, as it is desirable that it 
should be accomplished. Until, however, 
something of the kind has been done, with 
the sanction and by the authority of the 
higher powers, it rests with the tutor 
either to frame a set of tables himself, or 
to select, from those that are already pub- 
lished, the best and most approved ; and 
the students must be satisfied with the 
assurance of an experienced friend, that 
when they are once able to master with 
facility the higher rules and more amusing 
questions in arithmetic, they will acknow- 
ledge that they have been amply requited 
for any little toil that may have daunted 
or difficulty that may have discouraged 



37 

them at the commencement of their 
career. 

Only one more remark on this subject, 
and then I have done. 

It would, I think, be advisable for the 
tutor to inspire his pupils with a taste — 
a liking — for Mental Arithmetic. This 
branch of the art appears to be very useful, 
nay absolutely to be essential for the 
general purposes of life ; for, when people 
go to a market or a shop, they cannot 
carry with them, at least not very con- 
veniently, a book and pencil ; and even if 
they did, in the first place it wears a very 
dull unbusinesslike appearance, and in the 
next, when the shop is crowded and the 
market in a bustle, they would find it very 
difficult and very uncomfortable to make 
use of them; and at these times what a 
treasure it is to possess a power and a 
habit of quick mental calculatio nl__ This 
can only be acquired by practice; and, 



38 

therefore, besides the time devoted to it by 
the tutor, if the pupils were, on wet days 
and holidays, when the hours roll heavily 
over their heads, to propose to one another 
questions, which they might previously 
prepare for the purpose, it would afford 
them a very rational and enlivening amuse- 
\ ment, and one which would probably be 
attended with great improvement in this 
branch of arithmetic, and certainly be fol- 
lowed by that serene and satisfied feeling 
which invariably results from a judicious 
disposal of time. 

I have now pointed out to the Young, 
for whose interest and improvement I shall 
ever cherish a fond and friendly anxiety, 
the great value of time, and have shown 
the advantage of economizing and the sin 
of squandering it. I have endeavoured to 
impress upon them that they must devote 
their youth to study, if they desire to fulfil 
the end of their being, and to live without 



39 

misery and to die without remorse. I 
have set before them briefly, yet I hope 
not without some solemnity, the pre- 
eminent place that the Inspired Volume 
ought to hold in the regard of man 
above all human compositions, I have 
advised them, while they grasp, according 
to their opportunity, at general knowledge, 
to pay the strictest attention to those 
branches that are more immediately con- 
nected with their future pursuits. I have, 
I trust, said enough to show that good 
Education does not consist merely in a 
knowledge of the Classics, or any branch 
of Mathematics or Natural Philosophy ; 
but that it should discipline the mind, 
cheer the heart, and govern opinion — 
give to genius its wing — and to our 
capacity an interpretation. It should 
establish moral principles, afford a relish 
to the purest perception of human learning 
— to piety, persuasion and permanency — 

G 



40 

and render information the hand-maid to 
endless felicity. 

And now I take leave of my young 
friends, with a fervent prayer that they 
may, during their youth, by a course of 
undeviating steadiness and cheerful study, 
lay so secure and solid a foundation of 
virtue and godliness, as shall, after a life 
spent in the performance and the enjoy- 
ment of every good, lead them to a full 
perfection of holiness and happiness, in 
that better country and eternal kingdom, 
where no care can ever molest, nor sorrow 
assail us. 



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